Blog: Pack basketball team's season opener is like a homecoming on the road

Among the many lessons the Wolf Pack basketball team learned last season was this: lose a couple of games early in the season and it can cost you big time when you get to the end of the year.

Despite putting together a sparkling 28-7 record and 13-1 conference mark in 2011-12, the Wolf Pack was shut out of the NCAA Tournament. And a big reason why was the way the team started.

Nevada opened the year with back-to-back losses and was just 3-3 through its first six games before embarking on a 16-game winning streak. This year, the team knows that every game does indeed count.

"The beginning matters," said Malik Story, whose Wolf Pack opens the season at 7 p.m. Saturday against UC Irvine. "That's something I've been thinking about since we got invited to the NIT. Every game counts. We learned that the hard way last year."